1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to the field of interference mitigation within wireless networks. More particularly, in one exemplary embodiment, the present disclosure is directed to mitigating interference between multiple radio interfaces in aggressive form factor designs.
2. Description of Related Technology
The growing market for so-called “convergence products” has led to a revolution in the way consumers view computerized devices. These next generation computerized devices focus on offering consumers a substantially unified solution for a variety of services to which consumers have become accustomed. Common examples of such convergence products include, but are not limited to laptop computers, smart phones, and tablet computers such as the exemplary iMac™, Mac-Mini™, Apple TV™, Mac Pro™, Macbook™, Macbook Pro™, Macbook Air™, iPhone™, and iPad™ manufactured by the Assignee hereof. Convergence products must generally support a variety of wireless protocols and other functions. For instance, a convergence smart phone such as the iPhone has the capability of, among other things, sending and receiving emails over a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) such as e.g., the IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n standards, making and receiving voice/data calls using a cellular network (e.g., Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), LTE or LTE-A, etc.) and operating wireless peripheral equipment (such as wireless headsets, keyboards, etc.) using a personal area network (PAN) (e.g., Bluetooth™ protocol (BT), etc.) and providing location services (e.g., via Global Positioning System (GPS)).
Within this context, aggressive form factor designs and new design paradigms have greatly altered the landscape of consumer electronics. Consumers demand design qualities that transcend functionality; certain qualities such as reduced size, aesthetic appeal, portability, shared resources (e.g., multi-purposed components), and battery life have taken precedence over traditional design criteria. For example, metallic construction is often highly desired; however, those of ordinary skill will recognize that metallic materials can shield and/or interfere with radio reception. Similarly, compressing multiple radio transceivers within aggressively compact form factors contributes significantly to overall platform noise and may create other co-existence issues. Moreover, consumer electronics must provide higher performance over legacy platforms to satisfy evolving user expectations.
As devices have evolved according to customer preferences, certain design tradeoffs have adversely affected performance. Lower performance can potentially result in a poor user experience with the device. For example, certain aggressive form factors implement both BT and WLAN transceivers/antennae within very close physical proximity to one another. Unfortunately, BT and WLAN share the same ISM (Industrial Scientific Medical) radio band; i.e., 2.4-2.48 GHz frequency range. Consequently, BT and WLAN technologies will often interfere with each other when operating simultaneously, which causes noticeable problems in the user interface (e.g., BT audio stutter and drop-outs, slow WLAN transfer speeds, poor BT mouse tracking, keyboard and touchpad performance, or “jerkiness”, etc.) and in very severe conditions, can result in link failures.
Current and future consumer electronics device manufacturers must re-evaluate existing design assumptions. Future designs will need to establish new schemes for handling aggressive form factor designs and new design paradigms. In particular, new constraints (such as size and layout, manufacturing and design cost, product schedules, etc.) must be balanced against demands for high performance processors, memories, interfaces, system buses, display elements, and high rate clocking, etc. Realistically, future devices will have to tolerate higher platform noise (e.g., both static and dynamic noise floors (NF)) while still delivering acceptable performance and user experience.
Accordingly, improved solutions are needed for mitigating interference between multiple radio interfaces in, e.g., aggressive form factor designs.